Equal Pay and the Gender Pay Gap

Vicky Foxcroft Excerpts

Wednesday 1st July 2015 Commons Chamber

[Gloria De Piero]

I am not an expert on North Lanarkshire Council, but I would say, in relation to Scotland, that the pay gap has increased while the Scottish National party has been in government. That is a worry and it goes against the trend.

One woman who works in childcare won her equal pay claim after years of being paid less than men working in jobs that required fewer skills. She told me:

“I’d got a fair amount of money through the payout, but all of those years I struggled to pay my bills and the debt I was in as a low-waged woman worker…all those years I was in debt to credit card companies, even though I had been to college for two years. I’d got qualifications; it was a vocation not a job. And I think what would my life have been like if I’d been paid a fair wage?”

Winning an equal pay claim has never been easy. Equal pay claims make up only a fraction of employment tribunal claims. The Government have made the task even harder with the introduction of tribunal fees, which have led to a 69% fall in equal pay claims. Fewer women are accessing justice to challenge pay discrimination.

[Vicky Foxcroft (Lewisham, Deptford) (Lab)]

Does my hon. Friend agree that it is crucial that cost never acts as a barrier to justice?

Oral Answers to Questions

Vicky Foxcroft Excerpts

Monday 15th June 2015 Commons Chamber

[Nicky Morgan]

I thank my hon. Friend for that question. The national planning policy framework contains clear guidelines on building on green-belt land, and of course he, like others, has the opportunity to call in any planning application for determination by the Secretary of State. If he wants to give us further details, I am sure we will follow them up.

[Vicky Foxcroft (Lewisham, Deptford) (Lab)]

T3. On 3 June, during an interview on “BBC Breakfast”, the Education Secretary was asked five times, “How many academies are inadequate?” She has had two weeks to find the answer, so how many academies are failing, and what is she doing for children who are being let down in those schools?

[Nicky Morgan]

I welcome the hon. Lady to her position. The answer is 133. As I have set out, this Government take swift action to turn around all failing academies, and we want that same opportunity for children who are in failing local authority maintained schools.